About the work
Jesu Hochzeit is a mystery opera by Gottfried von Einem to a libretto by his wife, Lotte Ingrisch. Its premiere on 18 May 1980 at the Theater an der Wien was accompanied by fierce protests from ultra-Catholic circles, even though Cardinal König had approved the work beforehand.
Plot
The opera reinterprets the Passion as Jesus's symbolic marriage to Death: from his birth through his encounter with Death personified to the crucifixion, the story is told as a reconciliation between humanity and mortality, ending with Mary Magdalene's own redemption.
Cultural significance
The scandal surrounding the premiere, including heckling and stink bombs thrown in the auditorium, long overshadowed a work widely considered "misunderstood"; a 2016 revival reassessed it as a distinctive contribution to musical postmodernism.